Hepatitis C drugs offer new hope

Patients suffering from the effects of hepatitis C could have
another shot at a cure thanks to two new drugs recently approved by
the Food and Drug Administration.

The approval came from clinical work involving Incivek and
Victrelis, two drugs that block an enzyme that helps the virus
reproduce. Health officials - and one local patient - are calling
the new medicines the first breakthrough in treatment of the
disease in 20 years.

"I'm excited there is something new and hope for myself and
others who suffer from it," said Krum resident Michael Hood. "I was
told 11 years ago I would never see 50."

Hood, who will turn 50 in December, participated in clinical
trials at UT Southwestern Medical Center in Dallas. Hood, who has
been fighting the disease since 2001, is among the 3 million to 4
million Americans who suffer from hepatitis C.

Hepatitis C is an infectious disease that is spread through the
blood, including by using contaminated hypodermic needles or having
sex with an infected person. Hood theorized that his exposure to
the disease came during his hospital treatment after a motorcycle
accident many years ago.

Incivek is approved for patients who have some liver damage from
hepatitis C who either have not been treated, or were not cured by
other drugs.

Vertex Pharmaceuticals Inc., which makes Incivek, said in a news
release that many hepatitis sufferers in the United States do not
know they are infected. Hepatitis C can cause liver damage,
cirrhosis and liver failure and can increase the risk of
cancer.

"It's the silent killer. People get it; they don't realize they
have it until it's in a stage that it can't be slowed down," Hood
said. "It can affect anyone. It's a blood-borne disease a lot of
people suffer from and do not know; no matter your age or sex, you
can get it."

This is his second clinical treatment. The first gave Hood the
impression he had beat the disease in October. By December, he
found out it was not gone. Hood managed to get on with UT
Southwestern clinical trials in which patients were treated with a
combination of Incivek and standard therapies for a number of
weeks.

UT Southwestern and its Center for Liver Diseases has been
involved in clinical trials for a long time, spokesman Dewayne Cox
said.

"This wasn't a one-off clinical trial on those two drugs," he
said. "We have some internationally recognized liver disease
experts here."

In clinical trials, patients were treated with a combination of
Incivek and standard therapies for 12 weeks. They continued on the
standard treatments for another 36 weeks, but many of them were
cured within 24 weeks. Vertex said about 79 percent of previously
untreated patients were cured after treatment with Incivek. The
drug was also much more effective in patients who had relapsed, had
some response but not a cure, or had no response to other
drugs.

The most common side effects of Incivek are fatigue, itching,
nausea, diarrhea, vomiting, taste changes, and anal or rectal
problems. More serious side effects include rash, anemia, low red
blood cell count, and birth defects in pregnant women. The standard
treatments - including the IV drug pegylated interferon and the
pill ribavirin - can cause flu-like symptoms that can last for
months, but less than half of patients are cured.

Hood said the promising new drugs are the best news for people
like him in years.

"I think there is definitely prosperity to come with it. I don't
see how people who have known about it have given up," Hood said,
noting that some people stop taking standard treatments after being
hit with the side effects. "It depends on if you want to live or
die, and I am not ready to go yet."

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

BJ LEWIS can be reached at 940-566-6875. His e-mail address is
blewis@dentonrc.com .

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